In another corner of this site, I have written about the hero's journey and the elements which define that mythic journey toward transformation and enlightenment.  The archetypal myth of the hero's journey is central to human history and experience, and the metaphor of the hero's journey pervades our culture, appearing everywhere in our art, literature, folklore, and even our music.

The hero's journey is an ancient and often told tale.  We encounter the theme everywhere, and we have become accustomed to thinking of those who embark on the archetypal hero's journey as being almost exclusively male.  For many centuries men have set forth on the hero's voyage, venturing into the unknown, descending into the underworld and battling the forces of darkness before being reborn  and returning to the world triumphant and enlightened.  In almost all these heroic tales, women were relegated to supporting roles, remaining quietly at home on the hearth like Penelope, to keep the home fires burning and safeguard the hero's possessions until his triumphant return.  Heroic women like Boadicea and Joan of Arc have traditionally been treated as little more than footnotes in the history books and chronicles.

The ancient tale of Persephone's abduction by Hades, her descent into the underworld, the search by her mother Demeter, and her triumphant return to the light is a familiar story to most of us.  For the ancients it was the emergence of Persephone from the darkness below which heralded the end of Winter, the return of Springtime, the greening of the earth and emergence of new life.  The theme is a universal one, and it  may be said that in a sense, the tale of  Persephone's  abduction, descent and rebirth is the story of all women.  Perhaps that is why it strikes such a chord within us.

As ancient as the myth of Persephone may be, and as eloquently as the tale speaks to us, its telling rests upon the foundation of an even more ancient tale, one long forgotten, but which represents the very earliest articulation of the archetypal hero's journey.  In the original narrative, it was the Lady who embarked on the hero's journey into the underworld, and unlike Persephone, (in later tellings anyway), she was not abducted, but went willingly and alone into the lower realms, facing darkness, loneliness and the unknown to bring rites of  renewal, transformation and rebirth to humanity and the world.